Box office update: 'Breaking Dawn' keeps lead on Wednesday with $12.8 million

This Thanksgiving, Americans were feasting on turkey, mashed potatoes… and blood. After opening strong with $141.1 million last weekend, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 topped the box office charts with $12.8 million on Wednesday, according to early estimates. The film’s predecessors in the franchise, New Moon and Breaking Dawn – Part 1, each opened on the weekend before Thanksgiving, falling by 54 and 55 percent respectively over the five-day frames that followed. And Breaking Dawn – Part 2 will likely fall by a similar amount down to $64 million by the end of the 5-day holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, the audience for Skyfall keeps growing: the Bond film earned $7.4 million on Wednesday, putting it on target for $48.5 million by the end of the five-day weekend. That’s a substantial bump up from last weekend’s $41.1 million, and by Sunday evening, Skyfall will have over $200 million total.

In third was Rise of the Guardians, which underperformed with $4.8 million. The $145 million animated Dreamworks feature, which teams up Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, boasts a holiday theme that seems tailor-made for holiday crowds, but buzz for the film has quieted in recent weeks, as it competes with the critically acclaimed cartoon Wreck-It Ralph, and it’s projected to earn around $35 million by the end of the weekend.

Rounding out the Top 5 were Lincoln ($4.2 million, on track for $32 million) and RedDawn ($4.2 million, $24 million), and two other high-profile films finished close behind. Wreck-It Ralph and Life of Pi each earned $3.7 million on Wednesday, and a due to their respective family and adult target audiences, they should both benefit from a solid boost over the traditional weekend frame and earn about $24-25 million.